Narrative analysis and narrativization

I approached the study with a variety of different narrative analysis methods. To conduct the analysis, I transcribed the Let’s Plays into text format to see the structure and elements of the narration. It was imperative to see which kind of narrative patterns were repeated throughout the narration and identify them to see how the player-narrators altered the narration while playing.

As my first approach, I started identifying different narrative elements from Let’s Plays. This was necessary as traditional methods of story analysis, such as Campbell’s “hero’s journey” (Campbell 2008) or Syd Field’s ”three-act model”

(Field 2008) were not capable of explaining the varying and spontaneous narrative of a Let’s Play. This is because even though the core material (the games) is interpretable through them, the layer of player narrative was different and left many questions (Kerttula 2019a, 242).

To evaluate this further: Gabriel Menotti and Rene Glas write about Let’s Play from the viewpoint of machinima and film. According to Menotti, the performance emerges from immediate storytelling linked with the gameplay.

Because of this, analyzing Let’s Plays with the same narrative methods as with machinima is not possible, as the story shifts, moves and comes to completion as the player-narrator advances in the game (Menotti 2014, 84–89). Glas builds on Menotti’s views and argues that the presence of the player-narrator affects the narrative and makes it very different from all forms of machinima (Glas 2015, 82–

83). In addition, if we look at video games as a narrative media, they differ quite a lot from movies and literature. Even if the game is open-ended, the writers need to make the players go through important story pieces (DeMarle 2007, 72–74).

This also takes us back to the discussion of video games as a media and the debate between ludology and narratology (e.g. Aarseth 2012, 130). Regarding this study, I look at video games as means of creating a new story, while not discussing the stories in the games themselves. With this, both the ludic and the narrative aspects of the games are not in the focus of this research.

In video games, the storyline is usually linear, even if the player’s choices and free search for story elements lead to alternative storylines, giving the player an illusion of a storyline different from a typical story with a beginning, middle

and end (Iuppa & Borst 2007, 224). When games need to move the story forward without players’ intrusion, the usual way of doing this is via cutscenes. These cutscenes need to keep the story intact by intertwining the gameplay and the non-interactive parts (Aarseth 2004, 362).

Because of the different styles on narration and the focus that is put more on the player-narrator than the game, it was necessary to analyze the Let’s Plays in question through the lens of narrativization to see which narrative elements contribute to the form of a Let’s Play. According to Hayden White and Monika Fludernik, through narrativization the original material turns into a story, which puts the source material into a new cultural and narrative perspective and makes it more understandable (White 1987, 1–25; Fludernik 1987, 31–35). This can also be called storification rather than narrativization, as the narration gives the source material a completely new story. This happens because the source material becomes subordinate to the narration (Tammi 1992, 13). In this sense, the source game becomes an object of storification.

The elements derive from Catherine Kohler Riessman’s (2008) seven functions that a narrative can have, introduced in her book Narrative Methods for Human Sciences. These functions are remembering the past, arguing with the story, persuading the audience, engaging the audience, entertainment, misleading the audience and mobilizing others into action. (Riessman 2008, 8–9).

Through this framework, it was possible to conduct an analysis of the narratives in the Let’s Plays and to identify the seven key elements of a Let’s Play narrative.

The elements identified, with supporting literature from the two different Let’s Plays, were:

- Descriptive narration, where the narrator describes the visuals of the gameworld and, for example, the motives and background of the narrator regarding the game.

- Story narration, which gives the audience more insight into the original story of the game.

- Audiovisual narration, which comments on the sounds and aesthetics of the game.

- Game-mechanics narration, which comments on the playability and the interface of the game.

- Intertextuality, which connects the game and the player-narrator’s story with other media.

- Reflective narration, which reflects the supposed audience and the player-narrator himself.

- Alternative narration, which storifies the action of playing the game, providing the game narrative with new meanings and, in some cases, altering the personality of non-player characters.

These elements were evident from the data and are further supported by Sari Piittinen’s doctoral dissertation (Piittinen 2018, 52–53). In addition, various other sources support the elements found. Descriptive narration, story narration and

33 audiovisual narration follow Riessman’s functions of arguing, persuasion and engaging, as these functions are closely related to narrating the story and engaging the audience to a story that is different than the original (Riessman 2008, 8–9). Salen and Zimmerman’s theory of the space of possibility relates to game-mechanics narration, as the player-narrator makes obvious to the audience the possibilities the game world has (Salen & Zimmerman 2004, 67). The concept of intertextuality - how various references connect the material to other text - is supported by Julian Kücklich’s view of intertextuality in digital gaming. As Kücklich states, understanding the different connections between the texts and media can deepen one’s understanding of the culture where the product has originated. (Kücklich 2006, 105–107). Intertextuality in Let’s Plays deepen this understanding even further, as through commentary some intertextual references are presented to the audience explicitly. Additionally, the player-narrators make their own intertextual references throughout the narration, connecting the game and the Let’s Play to an even larger network of referable material (Kerttula 2019a, 246–247). This type of intertextual narrative has been present in video game culture for a long time, including in video game reviews (Suominen 2010, 84).

When considering different reflectivities, the supporting studies are not mainly from the circle of game studies, but also from social media and narrative studies. Reflective narration is inspired by Michael Strangelove’s (2010) studies on YouTube diaries, their online self-presentation, self-reflection, and how they reflect with the audience (Strangelove 2010, 74–77). Strangelove’s views of how different online video bloggers present themselves and reflect with the audience has many similarities with the style of reflectivity found in Let’s Plays, as the recorded video gaming with narration is, when looked at more broadly, a form of online video blogging. However, as the reflective narration in Let’s Plays usually takes an audience into account, they are different from vlogs, which, according to Michael Wesch, are introspective and continuous monologues (Wesch 2010, 26). Under reflective narration we find self-reflection, which follows Anthony Paul Kerby’s (1991) views of self-narration regarding Paul Ricoeur’s (1985) work on history and narrative (Ricoeur 1985, 213–214; Kerby 1991, 39–42).

The reflection of self is an important concept here; as both Kerby and Ricoeur have noted, telling one’s own stories gives the narrator an identity. However, many YouTubers are taking a role other than their own when recording the videos, as exemplified by Noah Antwiler’s blog posts, in which he writes about getting fired from his job, having different health problems and difficulties in his relationships. These blog posts have now become obscure, as the original website, The Spoony Experiment, was taken down during the year 2019. When self-reflecting, however, the player-narrators move out of their role and act as their own self. Because of this, Wesch’s definition of vlogging as a continuous monologue does not apply to Let’s Plays, as the narration is not continuous, and the player-narrator can shift between different roles during the story.

Through this comes perhaps the most peculiar and original type of narrative elements in Let’s Plays, alternative narration (Kerttula 2019a, 249–251).

This element changes the story of the game completely, moving it in another direction. By narrating story scenes of the game differently, giving new personalities to non-player characters and/or having a dialogue between the player-narrator and the game characters, alternative narration is the element that stands out the most in Let’s Plays, feeling like something akin to movie riffing. In movie riffing, the narrator or narrators comment on the movie on top of the original audio track, providing the movie with a critical and in many cases satirical narrative (see Weiner & Barba 2011; Clewis 2014).

In Let’s Plays, the riffing varies more because there are more elements to riff on. In addition, an important difference is that the narrator – or “riffer” – is an active character throughout the narration, rather than a passive viewer. Through these different elements, it is possible to see that the player-narrator is commenting not only on the source material, but also on himself and the way the player-narrator is interacting with both the game and the culture surrounding the source material. The tone of a Let’s Play can differ according to whether the Let’s Player has played the game before or not. The difference is notable not only in the standard narrative, but also in the visual aspects of the video. For example, in the Let’s Play Archive, user ThornBrain’s Let’s Play of 007: Agent Under Fire, we can clearly see that the narrator is accustomed to the set-pieces of the game-world. He does not spend time wandering around and trying out different things, but instead runs through the game quickly while explaining the mechanics verbally. He knows how the enemies act, he knows where the key-elements to completing a level are, and he knows his way around the secrets and puzzles. He also constantly refers to hidden secrets throughout the game, which he has already found in previous playthroughs.

Gabriel Menotti argues that there are many similarities between all types of recorded video gaming (Menotti 2014). However, the narrative style of Let’s Plays differentiates them from the other types of videos (Kerttula 2019b). As the narration of a Let’s Play is often spontaneous and has not been scripted beforehand (Kerttula 2017), the audience that the videos try to appeal to is different. Compared to television shows, which try to appeal to as many viewers as possible (Ha 2018), a Let’s Play builds the narration to appeal to people interested in the game being played, as well as those interested in the performance of play and the narrator.

This theoretical framework of the different narrative elements will lend itself to different kinds of research on Let’s Plays. However, it still needs more applications to be completely verified. The framework should be used with more Let’s Plays, and especially with different kinds of videos, to see if these narrative elements can really be applied to all styles of Let’s Plays. It is especially important to work out if there could be even more elements to add to this framework, as the original analysis was conducted using only a limited number of different Let’s Plays.

Continuing the study from the narrative analysis, I wanted to see how the player-narrators history and experience in gaming affected the narrative and whether Let’s Plays could be used as material for video game preservation, as

35 Niklas Nylund has suggested (Nylund 2015, ibid.). I set out to see if the narratives of these videos also create an oral history where the narrator reflects the game against his or her own history and experiences with it. The methodology for this involved combining the narrative analysis from the earlier study and a new analysis of the oral history produced by the player-narrators in these videos. The choice of oral history was obvious for the research, as according to Kirsti Salmi-Niklander (2006), oral history discusses important events in the life of one individual or community and is by nature usually quite long-term in scale (Salmi-Niklander 2006, 199-200). This way oral history gives an insight into the life, identity and personal cultural history of one individual (Passerini 1988, 53-60).

As oral history usually connects to the surrounding world of the narrator, it then brings in the dimension of the community to complement the story (Portelli 2006, 35). Through the community and the memories of the coeval world, oral history links to the social memory of the narrator (Korkiakangas 2006, 57).